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Milestones in Wildlife Photography

First Wildlife Photos in National Geographic

Photograph by George Shiras

The July 1906 issue of National Geographic featured its first ever wildlife photographs. Editor Gil Grosvenor printed 74 photos snapped by U.S. Representative and early conservationist George Shiras, beginning a long tradition of featuring wildlife photos in the magazine.

Jane Goodall With Chimp

Photograph by Michael Nichols

Primatologist Jane Goodall bends forward as Jou Jou, a chimpanzee, reaches out to her in Brazzaville, Congo. Goodall revolutionized primatology with her 1960s studies at Tanzania’s Gombe Stream Game Reserve, where she observed chimpanzees making and using tools, a landmark discovery in wildlife studies.

First Snow Leopard Photograph

Photograph by Dr. George B. Schaller

Photographed by Dr. George Schaller in the early 1970s, the first shots of snow leopards in the wild include this female Panthera uncia perched on a snowy crag in Pakistan's Chitral Valley. National Geographic published the first photographs of snow leopards in the wild in its November 1971 issue.

Arctic Wolf

Photograph by Jim Brandenburg

In Canada’s northernmost reaches, an arctic wolf gingerly tests the water near Ellesmere Island. As polar exploration heated up in the early 20th century, first with Robert Peary’s North Pole expedition and then with Roald Amundsen’s South Pole trek, audiences demanded photographs of the new lands and their creatures.

Hawaiian Monk Seal With Crittercam

Photograph by Greg Marshall

A Hawaiian monk seal rests on the sand, seemingly unaware of the Crittercam attached to its back. Developed by National Geographic's Greg Marshall in 1986, Crittercam is a camera system that collects video, sound, and environmental data and allows scientists to remotely observe animal behavior and see the world from the animals' perspectives.

Tiger Snapped by Camera Trap

Photograph by Michael Nichols

A camera trap snapped this picture of a tiger cooling off in a watering hole in Bandhavgarh National Park, India. Consisting of an unmanned camera set on auto and tripped by an animal crossing an infrared beam, camera traps allow wildlife experts and photographers to track numbers of endangered species and get pictures of elusive animals at close range.

Lionesses Drinking

Photograph by Beverly Joubert

Bending in graceful unison, six lionesses drink from a watering hole in Savuti, Botswana, where conservationists Dereck and Beverly Joubert have lived for more than 25 years, exploring, researching, and filming wildlife. Decades of life in the African wild have earned the Jouberts unprecedented access to wildlife, which they share with others through books, films, and lectures.

Crocodile by Camera Trap

Photograph by Michael Nichols

A remotely operated camera trap captures the tail end of a crocodile slinking to its den in Zakouma National Park, Chad. Triggered by infrared sensors tripped by the movement of a passing animal, camera traps have evolved from the trip-wire photography George Shiras pioneered in the late 1880s to high-tech digital traps with greater storage and memory capacity.

Carmine Bee-Eaters

Photograph by Frans Lanting

Cement skies over Luangwa Valley, Zambia, set off a string of ruby-plumed carmine bee-eaters perched on a branch. Over the years, the National Geographic Society has supported many ornithological studies, from George Shiras’s Migratory Bird Treaty, a critical piece of conservation legislation, to Ernest Holt’s expedition to South America to research and photograph more than 3,000 birds representing 486 species.